


Once Upon A Time

by caffeinegrooves



Category: The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Genre: Other, Sad, gran reminiscing, journey to the pole, terra nova expedition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:00:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23512018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caffeinegrooves/pseuds/caffeinegrooves
Summary: Gran thinks about the journey to the pole and his friends..
Relationships: Tryggve Gran/Edgar Evans (platonic), Tryggve Gran/Edward Wilson (platonic), Tryggve Gran/Henry Bowers (platonic), Tryggve Gran/Lawrence Oates (platonic), Tryggve Gran/Robert Scott (platonic)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Once Upon A Time

**Author's Note:**

> english is not my native language pls be kind to me

Once upon a time there had been a spot on the map, that was white, undiscovered, unknown, unseen from mankind. Of course, there had been many spots like this one time, but it was the last spot, that had the most magnificnet meaning and pulled explorers towards it like a magnet.  
This spot was now mapped, discovered, seen by many people. Gran was not one of them. He had never been even close. Yet he could say „We Norwegians were the first at the south pole.“ He never said it. He never felt proud of this achievement. Not even once. Whenever anyone mentioned the South Pole he became quiet, silent, sometimes even sad, nostalgic and melancholic. 

Amundsen had called him a british kissass. Maybe it was true, but he was rather a british kissass than a mischievious player, like Amundsen was, in his opinion at least.  
Antarctica. A place he recalled with fondness, yet grief. Somtimes he wished he could turn back time and live those 3 years all over again, the best years of his life. Sometimes he wished he had never gone there.

He knew many of his old sledging mates thought the same, Cherry for example. 

A picture of Scott in the newspaper and a pang of guilt hit him. He felt like he didnt try hard enough to help him to get to the pole.

A picture drawn by Wilson at a gallery and he broke down because the man had always been there for him with his wise words, yet Gran didnt save him when he needed to.

Taffs favourite drink served at a bar and he was reminded of he loud laugh of the seaman that echoed through the hut during blizzards and made everyone feel warm inside. 

Titus Oates on the cover of a book, called „a very gallant gentleman“ and he thought of the depot laying journey when he and Titus had become close friends and all the pipes they smoked together, swatching stories. 

And whenever the word „enduring“ or „brave“ was mentioned Birdie Bowers came into his mind and how assuring, witty and encouraging the small but sturdy man had been.  
It was a first rate tragedy, just how Cherry said it.

Gran hated it. When people talked about it, when people put them down, when the expedition was called „one of the most disastreous expeditions in the history of exploring“, when he was looked down at for being „a norwegian helping the english.“

Sometimes he wished the antarctic had never been discovered or shackleton had just managed to reach this damn south pole back in 1907.  
It was after all just a virtual point on the map.

Then all this never would have happened and they would have had a happy expedition with an only scientific aim.

But sometimes when he couldnt sleep and looked at the big map on his wall, with the south pole marked and the little line of Scotts route, he was glad. 

Glad that he had been part of this adventure and glad that after all there were still keen explorers in this world, dead by now but they left a legacy and it was his job to make people understand just how important it was to be a hero sometimes.

**Author's Note:**

> i would love if you leave kudos :)


End file.
